March for Life: Pro life and pro woman go hand in hand

Dustin SigginsPosted at 12:41 pm on January 22, 2016

Today is the March for Life, held every year in Washington on the anniversary of Roe v Wade. LifeSiteNews is partnering with The Ed Morrissey Show on an afternoon podcast today at 3 ET. Dustin Siggins offers his own perspective (not LSN’s) on the issues of life as a guest post in connection to the theme for this year’s March for Life.

The March for Life’s theme this year is “Pro-Life, Pro-Woman.” The concept embodies a lot – examining the harm of abortion to women, encouraging women to adopt instead of abort, and generally empowering women who are abandoned by the fathers of their children to choose life.

These are all worthwhile ideas that will save untold numbers of born and unborn lives from death and destruction. But like so many other policies on both sides of the abortion fight, they only look to stop abortions after a baby has been conceived.

For abortion supporters, abortion prevention largely consists of blaming men who abandon women, and encouraging the use of birth control. Many on both sides of the abortion debate back government programs that ineptly replace supportive communities, and poorly substitute bureaucrats who for parents.

Christ certainly ordered people to help their neighbors, but he didn’t force charity at the point of a gun. Likewise, there is no Biblical requirement to use the power of government to mandate maternity or paternity leave — economically harmful policies that do little besides expand the power of government.

To be truly pro-woman is to treat women equally — acknowledging that women have the same sexual responsibility feminists rightly demand of men — especially before pregnancy. And according to the pro-abortion research group Guttmacher, more than 98 percent of abortions are done to babies conceived through consensual sexual activity.

Responsibility isn’t sexist. If you don’t want an unintended pregnancy in your life, don’t engage in sexual intercourse — a method of birth control that is 100 percent effective.

It is also distinctly in the interests of women to abstain from sexual intercourse until they are married to a responsible man. When a child is begotten, it is the mother left holding the bag, not the guy who took off after getting her pregnant or coerced her to get an abortion.

Being pro-woman is more than just preventing death once a child is conceived, or using government programs to stand in for true parenting and community support. It includes the same types of hard truths that loving parents give to their children every day, and is worlds away from a top-down authoritarianism that enables irresponsible behavior.

In short, being pro-woman involves both sexes being equally responsible for their bodies and their sex lives. Bashing men is only half the equation; it takes two to tango (and impregnate).

Today’s protest, projected to be a hundred thousand strong, is an opportunity to turn mainstream liberal feminism on its head. Reminding women of their real power, including their ability to be sexually responsible, would be quite the coup.